Field of Dreams = Shoeless Joe Overrated?

[xcgrammer]

Before everyone goes crazy hear me out. This may have been asked before and if it has forgive me, but does anyone feel that the bulk of Shoeless Joe Jackson's card value is tied to him being immortalized in the movie? The story on its own is good, but I believe it is the movie that takes it to the stratosphere.

Please please don't get me wrong, I completely understand how good of a player he was. .356 career batting average. I get it. However, he didn't have the gradual decline that other greats have in their 30's because he was cut short. That batting average would have dropped. He probably would have been around 3,000 hits and 1,500 RBI's .940 OPS would have probably been closer to .850 - .900 still good, but his card values... To me his value is tied to the Movie and the Book by a LARGE amount.

I also understand that alot of his cards are in tough to find sets. But come on, his most similar players by age according to Baseball Reference are Paul Waner, Pete Browning and finally George Sisler (HOF greats but with reasonable card prices) this takes into account that his career was cut short since it is most similar by age, not career totals (that list by career is fairly unimpressive even more so).

He would have had 4-5 more good years but he was likely about to take a dramatic step down, as his great years were likely about to be behind him.

Great player, a Hall of Famer for sure, but he certainly was not Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, or Honus Wagner, and without the movie he would have likely been in the Tris Speaker or Eddie Collins range of card values I think.